“I was planning to go with just Taekgyu, but Hyun-joo noona also chimed in that she would come along too, having heard about it. Then, Henry quickly jumped in, saying he’d drive.”
“I’ll be your escort.”
“……”
Anyone could see he was trying to escort Hyun-joo noona.
We waited for noona to come downstairs in the lobby. Henry, who was smoothing his collar and hair with his hands, gave me a sheepish smile when he noticed me looking at him.
I smiled and said, “I’m so glad things are working out for you two.”
“It’s all thanks to Jin-hoo and Taekgyu.”
“What did we even do?”
I mean, we’d said we’d help multiple times, but what had we actually done?
“No, it’s because you invited me to the Ceylon Hotel grand opening party that day. If not for that, none of this would have happened.”
Come to think of it, that night was when everything unfolded. If not for that, it might have taken a long time to open noona’s heart.
Taekgyu nodded. “Right, right. It’s all thanks to us that you two are doing well. Isn’t that right, my friend?”
“Well…”
It’d be nice if they thought of it that way.
While we were talking, Hyun-joo noona came down.
Henry got into the driver’s seat, Taekgyu in the passenger seat, and Hyun-joo noona and I sat in the back.
When Taekgyu asked why she was coming along, noona replied, “I heard Professor Jang Se-myung became the department head two years ago, and I haven’t even visited him. I thought I’d take this opportunity to see him and say hello.”
“Oh, right. He’s the professor who taught you, noona.”
“You could say he’s my mentor.”
Hyun-joo noona graduated from Korea University’s Business Administration department, so of course she’d know him well.
“I wanted to take that professor’s class too, but the course registration was crazy competitive.”
“His lectures are quite interesting too. If you ever go back to school, you should definitely take it.”
“Yeah, he explains things in a way that’s easy for even laypeople to understand.”
But will I even be able to go back to school?
Henry said, “I also know Professor Jang Se-myung. I was deeply impressed by his book analyzing the British Disease.”
He’s a world-renowned economist, not just in Korea. Anyone working in finance would know his name.
“‘From Grave to Cradle’?”
“That’s right.”
As the title suggests, it’s a parody of “From Cradle to Grave.”
The reason Professor Jang Se-myung gained fame was because of a book he published while writing a dissertation analyzing the British economy.
Since the 1960s, Britain had faced a serious crisis where costs were increasing, but labor productivity and product competitiveness were declining. Whenever they tried to freeze wages or cut costs, workers went on strike everywhere.
To the point where Europe called it the “British Disease.” And the person who cured this disease was Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady.
Thatcher reformed the public sector and implemented restructuring across the economy. When unions opposed this and rose up, she deployed public power and pushed through relentlessly.
Thanks to these policies, she overcame the British Disease and achieved significant economic growth, but the side effects were also considerable. That’s why evaluations of Thatcher are still extremely divided even now.
Professor Jang Se-myung, in that book, presented the causes and process of overcoming the British Disease, as well as the various side effects appearing in British society today and ways to solve them.
“From Grave to Cradle” caused a sensation in Britain, and was later published in the US, Europe, and Korea.
When Professor Jang Se-myung said he was returning to Korea, Cambridge even offered him a tenured professorship to keep him.
But in the end, he took a professorship at Korea University and has been actively working as an economist, teaching students while writing papers and publishing books analyzing and seeking solutions for the problems of the Korean economy.
As we were nearing our destination, Taekgyu asked as if something had just occurred to him, “Ah! Do you know yet if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“I asked the doctor not to tell me. It’s no fun if you know too early.”
“Which do you prefer, noona?”
“Both are fine.”
Even though he wasn’t asked, Henry also said, “I’m happy with either.”
***
We arrived at the Seosung Economic Research Institute in Gwanghwamun.
Several people were already gathered in the conference room. President Im Jin-yong, who had arrived earlier, greeted us and introduced the people.
“This is Director Kim Dae-young.”
Director Kim Dae-young greeted us. “Nice to meet you, Representative Kang Jin-hoo. I’ve been pestering the President, saying I really wanted to meet you sometime, and I finally get to today.”
“Hello, Director. I’ve heard a lot about you as well.”
He’s also a distinguished scholar and is in charge of analyzing this Asian market investment plan.
President Im Jin-yong saw Henry and Hyun-joo noona and congratulated them.
Shortly after, Professor Kim Ho-min, who developed the OTK battery, arrived, followed by Professor Kim Myoung-jun and Professor Jang Se-myung together.
Professor Jang Se-myung was the typical scholar, wearing glasses and with neatly cut hair. His actual age was in his early 50s, but he looked more like his late 40s.
He shook hands and smiled playfully. “To see the famous Representative Kang Jin-hoo here.”
“I too have been hearing about Professor’s reputation since I was a student. I’ve read almost all of your books. Thank you for accepting the invitation.”
Hyun-joo noona greeted him happily. “Hello, Professor. It’s been a while.”
Professor Jang Se-myung’s eyes widened and he was delighted. “Who is this? Oh Hyun-joo! How have you been?”
Hyun-joo noona smiled. “Yes. I should have visited you sooner, I’m sorry I’m late.”
“No, no. You can be busy. To think that my department’s student would become the Korea branch manager of Golden Gate. Do you know how much I’ve been bragging to the other professors that you’re my student?”
Professor Kim Myoung-jun put on a smug expression and muttered to himself, “Well, my student is the CEO of OTK Company. And also the most outstanding investor of the 21st century and a hero who saved America from a major disaster.”
“……”
Please stop it.
“Ah! I saw in the news that you’re pregnant. Congratulations. And perhaps this gentleman is…?”
Professor Jang Se-myung’s gaze turned to Henry next to her. I wondered how Hyun-joo noona would introduce him.
Was she going to say “baby’s father” or “live-in partner”?
Henry also looked like he was expecting something. Hyun-joo noona said casually, “Yes. This is my fiancé.”
Henry’s expression brightened even more at those words. He said in Korean, “Nice to meet you. I’m Henry. It’s an honor to meet you, Professor.”
After the greetings, we each took our seats.
I asked Professor Jang Se-myung for his opinion on the current situation of Korean manufacturing. Before coming here, I had sent the industrial complex development plan by email, so he probably reviewed it.
An ordinary person might be nervous and trembling, but he didn’t seem fazed at all. Well, he’s attended and lectured at academic conferences and symposiums with world-renowned economists many times, so this kind of setting probably isn’t unfamiliar to him.
“To summarize the current problems of the Korean economy in one word, it’s polarization. Polarization, represented by large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises, regular and non-regular workers, and the Seoul metropolitan area and the provinces, has reached a serious level. To ensure continuous economic growth, this problem must be resolved.”
In economics, what’s important isn’t just what’s right, but what’s profitable. Many economists argue that the middle class should be expanded and polarization and income inequality should be reduced, not because it’s morally right, but because it’s beneficial.
If polarization deepens, social unrest increases, costs arise, and economic growth declines. On the other hand, the larger the middle class, the more consumption and savings increase. This is also why most countries aim for welfare states.
President Im Jin-yong asked, “Is the solution the wage solidarity system?”
The basic concept of the wage solidarity system is equal pay for equal work.
This isn’t a new idea that Professor Jang came up with, but something that has been discussed among various experts for some time.
The country that implemented this is Sweden.
Like all European countries, Sweden also experienced extreme chaos and economic crisis after World War II.
At this time, Prime Minister Tage Erlander proposed equal pay for equal work and, through lengthy dialogue and persuasion, led to an agreement between labor, management, and government.
Equal pay for equal work is, as the words say, paying the same wage for the same work.
If you do this, the profits of industries with high productivity increase, but businesses and industries with low productivity cannot afford the wages, automatically collapse, and mass unemployment occurs.
Therefore, various welfare policies were implemented at the same time. Through these, workers laid off from low-productivity jobs received job training and were re-employed in higher-productivity companies.
Thanks to this, Swedish manufacturing has been able to survive even in competition with the US, Japan, and Germany.
“Like in the case of Sweden, the wage solidarity system is only possible if it’s supported by the entire social system. Therefore, it’s unrealistic to apply it to Korea immediately. However, it’s sufficiently feasible within an industrial complex. And if it succeeds, it can gradually be expanded to other areas.”
In the past, the wage gap between large corporations and SMEs wasn’t that large.
Even at most, it was around 20 percent difference. But now, it’s at least double, and sometimes even three or four times greater. If you include various welfare benefits, the gap becomes even larger.
Especially in the automotive industry, the work done in large corporate factories and SME factories is generally similar. Nevertheless, the wage gap continues to widen because large corporations monopolize most of the profits.
The bargaining power of individual companies is naturally superior for large corporations. The larger the corporation, the greater the bargaining power, so the share of SMEs continues to shrink.
Ultimately, if left as it is, the wage gap is bound to widen further in the future.
“Wage solidarity is about companies sharing the money they earn proportionally and according to principles between prime contractors and subcontractors. This way, prime contractors don’t need to pressure and undercut unit prices, and workers don’t care whether they work for a large corporation or an SME. Because the wages they receive are similar anyway.”
Let’s assume there are a prime contractor (large corporation), a subcontractor (SME), and non-regular workers. Based on Eunsung Motors, they receive 95 million won (Eunsung Motors), 45 million won (1st tier supplier), and 25 million won (in-house non-regular and 3rd tier supplier) respectively.
Ultimately, it can be seen that the wages received by Eunsung Motors workers are at the expense of other workers’ share.
The wage solidarity system aims to link these wages together and reduce the gap as much as possible to around 60 million won, 50 million won, and 45 million won.
This way, large corporations can reduce individual union strikes and gain the effect of coexisting with subcontractors, and SMEs can secure competitiveness and embark on their own technology development. And this in turn leads to improved productivity.
Companies benefit because they are guaranteed reasonable wages and stable operations, and workers benefit because they can get quality jobs. The nation benefits because it can collect corporate taxes, and local governments benefit because jobs increase and the local economy revitalizes.
So, who would dislike something this good?
Of course, it’s the workers who are already affiliated with large corporation unions. They don’t want regular workers doing similar work to them with lower wages.
In short, because they receive 100 million won, they want the company not to hire anyone for less than that amount. (They don’t care how much non-regular and subcontractor employees receive.)
That’s why, despite being discussed for a long time, the discussion hasn’t progressed an inch due to union opposition.
So, who can do this?
Someone who has capital and technology worth investing in Korea, but is as free as possible from the influence of existing unions.
That’s me. OTK Company doesn’t have factories in Korea, and the number of directly employed staff is only a few dozen.
Director Kim Dae-young said, “If you involve Eunsung Motors, there’s a high possibility that their union will revolt. Both major labor federations won’t stay still either.”
President Im Jin-yong looked at me and said, “You’re going to get a lot of flak.”
The arrows of criticism will naturally be directed at OTK Company, which is leading the project.
Taekgyu patted me on the shoulder and said, “It’s okay. It’s not like he’s not used to getting flak. He’s adapted by now and doesn’t care anymore, right?”
“……”
No, I still get hurt.
